NFA gets OK to build new gym

Students in Norwich Free Academy’s new alternative high school will move into their permanent home on Sachem Street in a week, a top campus official said Tuesday night.

Adam Benson

Students in Norwich Free Academy’s new alternative high school will move into their permanent home on Sachem Street in a week, a top campus official said Tuesday night.

As part of the new plan for the school, NFA officials Tuesday sought and won permission from the Commission on the City Plan to build a $2 million, 5,000-square-foot extension to the $2.5 million complex at 90 Sachem St., to make way for a gymnasium and extra office space.

“We have started extensive renovations to the Sachem Street building to accommodate kids with the program,” Richard Rand, NFA’s chief financial officer, told the commission.

Commissioners unanimously approved a site plan and special user permit for the project.

“We feel this is an integral part in providing good service to students at the academy,” Rand said. “The gym is the prime purpose of our request.”

Since September, the 66 students enrolled in NFA’s alternative high school program have spent the day at Bishop Elementary School at 528 E. Main St. Rand said they’ll relocate to Sachem Street on Jan. 24.

Last June, the city’s Board of Education voted to shutter its troubled Thames River Academy and partner with NFA on a transitional education program.

NFA leaders told Norwich educators it could take between 55 and 100 students per year, with operating costs between $992,000 and $1.32 million. Tuition is $25,000 per pupil, and all have immediate access to NFA’s 65 clubs and activities and 30 athletic programs.

There’s also an opportunity for students to move from the Sachem Street school to classes on the main campus, NFA officials have said.

Rand said the 3,386 square-foot gymnasium will be used for physical education and health classes at the alternative high school, and could also be used for assemblies and functions such as “mini-graduations.”
Rand said a “fund raising element” will take place before construction starts on the expansion, which should be in about a year and a half.

Tom Cummings, of Norwich-based CLA Engineers, said parking will be ample, with 75 spaces available for people at the Sachem Street site, compared to 32 at Bishop. “The needs of these kids is to burn off energy, and that can be incorporated with physical education and health instruction,” Rand said. “These kids need a release throughout the day.”